Inclusive learning policy actually excludes groups from UK
Kathy Reding
Assistant News Editor
Beginning last spring and continuing through this fall, UK's chancellor's office has instituted a variety of proposals in its push toward making UK a more "inclusive learning community."Chancellor Elisabeth Zinser and Vice Chancellor for Minority Affairs Lauretta Byars and their committee of students, faculty and administrators have been working all semester to promote and publicize their ideas and actions in order to get the remainder of the campus involved.Making UK more inclusive, welcoming everyone, treating all with justice, it all sounds so nice and warm and fuzzy, so of course it's a great idea. We should be nicer to everybody. Everyone deserves equal treatment and respect.
This is not a radical new notion they are promoting. It's just common sense.
It is also the basis of any university.
The whole idea behind attending a university is education. Through education, we gain understanding or, at the very least, exposure to people and ideas which may not necessarily be just like our own. Education presents a diversity of people, thoughts, knowledge and expression.
A university education's very nature is inclusive learning.
In reality, what the chancellor's office and the committee have created is a vast public relations ploy, with political correctness mandates.
A slate of feel-good proposals and "look at what we've done" ideas does not make UK more inclusive of all, but rather singles out groups of people, leading to greater separation.
The inclusive learning push was brought on by actions which took place on this campus last spring. A black student reported she had been threatened by white students. White students reported an attack by black students. University administration was accused of not responding quickly enough to the first incident and not taking a stand against it.
Suddenly, people began saying UK has a racial problem, that it is a racist campus. Hundreds of students rallied to "break the silence" of the administration on this issue.
Administrators had to react to this statement made by their campus. They could not ignore it. However, their reaction, the inclusive learning community proposals, is not the answer. Reactive rather than proactive ideas do not work. Instead, they create additional problems and questions left unanswered.
In order to be included in UK's inclusive learning community, you must first separate yourself. You have to be designated to a particular group. You must be black. You must put yourself in the women's category. You have to be classified as a homosexual. But wait, they forgot to include homosexuals in the proposal.
Separating in order to be included - sounds a bit ironic.
Categorizing individuals further divides the University. We shouldn't see an event, class or activity as geared to one of these groups. Many inclusive learning community proposals, such as an African-American convocation, chancellor's support of a women's writers conference and stronger incentives to recruit African American faculty, further separate people and ideas.
The argument can be made that those in the minority need to band together to have more of an influence with the majority. However, if they are strictly concerned with working within their specified group, interaction with the larger group, the University, is minimized and opportunities for "inclusion" are minimized.
Everyone wants to be included, to be a part of the big picture. The easiest way to do this is for each individual to look at all others a simply another individual - not as a male, a lesbian or a black.
That is true inclusion, but unfortunately, this is not a naively perfect world.
UK, as it is, is quite inclusive. Students and staff represent a plethora of nations, religions, cultures and values. The only time these people are not looked at on an equal basis is when special programs for these groups are offered.
Inclusion, as administrators define it, can not be mandated. Holding staff and faculty workshops on ethnicity, writing a University Creed of inclusion and infusing multiculturalßß perspectives into all curriculum are ideas which can not be enforced.
These plans sound good and look good, but they are no more than a bunch of words. They will not change what people say and do. People who have to be told to be nice to everyone instead of just being that way are not going to have their attitudes and actions changed through slow, bureaucratic talk and proposals.
Assistant News Editor Kathy Reding is an agriculture communications senior; her views do not necessarily represent those of the Kentucky Kernel.
| Contents | Home | Archives | Feedback |
© Copyright 1996, Kernel Press Inc. All Rights Reserved